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Ahuti Mk II, an electric interceptor drone built by the Hyderabad-based start-up Apollyon Dynamics, has been recognised by the India Book of Records as the country's fastest multirotor unmanned aerial vehicle.
It recorded a certified top speed of 498 km/h, well past the previous Indian multirotor benchmark of 325 km/h.
Apollyon Dynamics was founded in 2025 by Jayant Khatri and Sourya Choudhary and is incubated at the BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus.
The original Ahuti reached about 300 km/h in 2025; the Mk II was rebuilt in under a year for a speed gain of roughly 66%.
The drone is designed as an interceptor to chase down and neutralise hostile drones and loitering munitions, rather than for surveillance or photography.
A multirotor UAV takes its lift from several powered rotors rather than from fixed wings, which makes it able to hover and manoeuvre precisely but normally slow, because the rotors that hold it up also limit its forward speed. Most multirotors are built for surveillance, mapping, photography or payload delivery, where endurance matters more than dash speed. An interceptor is the opposite design brief: it exists to close distance on a hostile drone or a loitering munition before that target reaches what it is aiming at, so speed and rate of climb dominate every other consideration. This is why a certified 498 km/h on a multirotor is unusual - it is a configuration normally traded away for stability.
Simple Analogy: Most multirotors are built like delivery vans; an interceptor is built like a police pursuit car on the same chassis.
Unmanned systems that orbit an area and then strike a target, sometimes called kamikaze drones. They are exactly the class of threat an interceptor is meant to defeat.
Counter-unmanned-aircraft defence combines detection, jamming and kinetic interception. A fast interceptor drone is the kinetic layer, used when jamming is ineffective against an autonomous target.
Apollyon Dynamics was incubated on a university campus, part of a wider pattern of defence technology moving out of laboratories and into small firms with academic backing.
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An unmanned aerial vehicle that derives lift and control from several powered rotors - quadcopter, hexacopter, octocopter - rather than from fixed wings.
A drone built to pursue and neutralise other aerial threats, prioritising speed and climb rate over endurance or payload.
An unmanned system that can remain airborne over a target area before diving onto a target; also called a kamikaze drone.
An Indian record-keeping organisation that documents and certifies verified national achievements.